Paula DeenRestaurant at Center of Racism ScandalShuts Down

4/3/2014 11:00 AM PDT

Uncle Bubba's Seafood & Oyster House -- the place where Paula Deen's empire crumbled -- just closed for good, and the way employees found out is just shocking.

The company did NOT tell its employees in an open meeting or face-to-face. The workers showed up this morning only to find the sign down and appliances being removed from the joint.

The only explanation was posted on the restaurant's Facebook page this morning -- "Thank you for 10 great years. Uncle Bubba's is now closed."

People were pissed off, including one woman who says, "My mother worked there for over 8 years and no one called her!!! My fiance also worked there no one called him, in fact a UB manager called him LAST NIGHT to get his availability for next week!"

Another wrote, "My mother put in some hard work for years with you & she finds out when she shows up for work this morning to be escorted by a police officer to get her belongings."

You may recall ... the GM of Bubba's sued Paula ... and during her depo Paula recounted the story where she once used the N word to describe an African American man who held her up.